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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Turkish court on Thursday handed down lengthy jail terms to numerous Kurdish politicians, including Selahattin Demirtas and Ahmet Turk, over 2014 protests related to Kobane city.
Turkish state media reported that Turk, a veteran Kurdish politician who became the mayor of Mardin municipality during March local elections, was slapped by the Ankara court with ten years of prison sentence for his alleged involvement in 2014 protests.
Rudaw reported in Ankara that numerous other Kurdish politicians were also sentenced to jail, including jailed Kurdish politician Demirtas, who was handed around 40 years of jail term. He was the co-chair of the HDP during the protests.
In October 2014, the city of Kobane in northeastern Syria (Rojava) was under attack by the Islamic State (ISIS). The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), now rebranded as Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), called for street protests to ask the Turkish government to open a corridor allowing military aid from the Kurdistan Region to reach the Kurdish city. The protests turned violent and 51 people were killed and hundreds more injured.
In 2014, Demirtas held a press conference in Diyarbakir (Amed) where he criticised the violence while remaining firm in his support for the protestors. The demonstrations ended on his call.
Figen Yuksekdag, former HDP co-chair, is among Kurdish politicians who were handed down lengthy jail terms on Thursday.
The court also ruled the release of veteran Kurdish politician Gultan Kisanak who has been in jail for over seven years. She later told reporters that people need peace not freedom in Turkey.
The rulings by the Ankara court come less than two months after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost the local polls. He has blamed DEM Party for his party’s failure in metropolises like Istanbul, claiming that the pro-Kurdish party supported the opposition candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu.
DEM Party fielded its own candidate in the city and later denied supporting Imamoglu.
“We do not recognize this verdict. Selahattin [Demirtas], Figen [Yuksekdag], and those on trial in the Kobane case have been acquitted in the hearts of Kurds, Turks, workers, women, and youth; they are free," DEM Party Co-chair Tuncer Bakirhan told reporters in Ankara.
Erdogan said earlier this month that he sees a political "softening" in Turkey following his election loss.
“We have been hearing normalization and softening messages (from the government circles) in these days, but today the HDP, Kurdish politics, and democrats are being attempted to be erased from the political scene," Bakirhan said.
Updated at 11:35 pm
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